Maryhill Museum of Art to Open!
- This interesting museum, located near Goldendale, Wash., opens for its
75th anniversary season on Sunday, March 15. It features a collection of
chess sets in addition to many other works of art.
See March 1 article in The Columbian.

Scholastic Chess Article! See "All the right moves: La Center chess team wins league title" from The Columbian
(Feb. 26, 2015) about the La Center High School chess team, which finished first out of 12 teams in the second division
of the Oregon High School Chess Association's Portland League in their first year as a competitive team.

Nakamura wins in Gibraltar! GM
and former U.S. chess champion Hikaru Nakamura was the
second-highest rated player entered in the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Jan. 26-Feb. 5,
and he won the event with an impressive 8.5/10 score! The highest rated player, at
2800 FIDE, was former world championship contender Veselin Topalov
of Bulgaria. He finished in a tie for 3rd with 7.5/10. Taking 2nd was
English GM David Howell with 8.0/10. See the event website.

February magazine!
The February issue of Northwest Chess
was mailed on 1/30. it's a 32-page issue with Oregon Chess News, "The Foolish King" by Samir Sen, Washington Chess News,
Idaho Chess News and a back-cover photo of Corey Longhurst by Jim Berezow.
Cover: Aaron Grabinsky by Nancy Keller.See the teaser(selected pages with color).
Note: The teaser, and eventually the final version that will appear online,
contain corrections to a couple of errors that appeared in the printed edition.

Best Chess Books! See a list of the
"Best Chess Books Ever"
on chess.com as recommended by various GMs and IMs including GM Seirawan, IM Donaldson and IM Silman.

Elmars Zemgalis memorial information - A memorial to
celebrate the inspirational life of Elmars Zemgalis, International
Grandmaster, was held on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 at the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Seattle.
Memorial contributions, in lieu of flowers, may be made to the Seattle Chess Club,
http://www.seattlechess.org, or to the church.
See the obituary on legacy.com, as also published in The Seattle Times on Jan. 4.

January magazine!
The January issue of Northwest Chess
was mailed on 12/26. It's a 32-page issue with Washington Chess News, Chess Groovies by NM Daniel He and NM Samuel He,
Oregon Chess News, Idaho Chess News and a back-cover photo of Jim Berezow by Jeffrey Roland.
Cover: Alan Tan by Duane Polich.See the teaser(selected pages with color).

David Golub awarded top USCL board 4 honors!
Congratulations to NM David Golub for being named U.S. Chess League 1st team All Star for board 4 for the 2014 season.
Link to report from the USCL website.
1st Team: NM David Golub (SEA).
This was not a difficult decision as Golub had a near-perfect record (7.5 of
8 with a 2499 performance rating), with many instrumental wins along the
way, several of which were critical to Seattle recovering from a tough start
to the season and snagging the final playoff spot. According to team manager
Josh Sinanan, "I can assure you that David will be graduating to board 3 next season!"
Orlov 3rd Team Board One All Star!
In addition, IM Georgi Orlov was named as the 3rd Team All Star on board 1, behind two GMs.
Link to report from the USCL website. His record was 4.5 of 6, for a very impressive 2874 performance rating.

Tied for 1st! Congratulations to
Samir Sen of Washington for his 1st-place tie in the 12th
grade section of the USCF K-12 Championships held Dec. 12-14 in Orlando,
Fla. Samir scored 6 of 7, raising his rating to 2222, a solid master level.
See the completed tournament news below for a link to the USCF crosstables
for the grade-level sections of this event.

In Memoriam - Elmars Zemgalis
(b. September 9, 1923 in Riga, Latvia - died December 8, 2014 in Seattle, Washington) as
reported by IM John Donaldson. He was the second oldest Grandmaster
in the world (age 91) behind only Yury Averbakh (92). Elmars was Washington
State Champion in 1953 and 1959. His best result was = 1st with Bogoljubow
at Oldenbourg 1949 ahead of Rossolimo, Unzicker, O'Kelly, Saemisch and 12 other participants.
Photo at left: Zemgalis at 90th birthday party in 2013, courtesy of
Viktors Pupols and Deborah Petzal. Photo at right: Zemgalis at chessboard in
his younger days, courtesy of IM John Donaldson.

December magazine!
The December issue of Northwest Chess
was mailed on 11/28. It's a 32-page issue with
Oregon Chess News (includes Raptis vs. Koons match annotated by Koons),
Idaho Chess News, Millionaire Chess Open and Western States Open, Washington
Chess News, Chess Groovies by NM Daniel He and NM Samuel He, Journal of
Chess Research Launches with De Groot Gala! by FM Loren Schmidt and a
back-cover photo of Jazon Samillano with Morgan the Dog by Brian Berger.
Cover: Darwin Porth on National Chess Day by Adam Porth. This
is also the first issue printed by Sound Publishing Inc. of Everett, Wash.
See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Photo at right: Northwest Chess editor Jeff Roland shows off the
December magazine at the Boise Chess Club on December 8. Left to right: Alex
Machin (sitting at the chessboard playing), Corey Longhurst (standing next
to Jeff, looking at the magazine) and Jeff (holding magazine). Photo by Jim Berezow.

World Championship Rematch! Carlsen wins and retains championship!World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Challenger Vishy Anand played the World Championship Match
(actually rematch) in Sochi, Russia, November 7-23, with Carlsen winning 6.5-4.5, thus retaining his championship title.
Carlsen won games 2, 6 and 11, and Anand won only game 3, although he missed a Carlsen blunder in game 6.
The FIDE President previously invited the Prime Ministers of Norway and India to the opening ceremony and
to the "first move." The FIDE President also invited all World Champions to the ceremony,
which took place on November 7th. Official match website.

Completed Tournament / Match News

Beginning in 2013, some local tournament reports are posted to the
Northwest Chess (NWC) blog, found at http://www.nwchess.com/blog/.
Links are to NWC blog post or other report. Thanks to Rusty Miller for
writing most of the tournament reports from 2013 until April 2014. Rusty stepped down,
but started blogging again occasionally as of Nov. 2014. If you are interesting in blogging for your club's events,
please let us know. Click on photos to enlarge, or see photos in some of the blog posts.